Life Among The Dead (10 page)

Dan hurls the remote, agitated that his plan is a bust. It sails to the home next door, crashing through one of the downstairs windows. A handful of dead break away from the horde to investigate.

Dan looks at the cars parked along the street. There is a delivery truck a little further down towards the dead end. He is considering trying to shoot at one of the vehicles, but doubts very highly he can hit just the right spot to blow it up.

“
Only one bullet and no scope.” He shakes his head. Dan wonders if he can get him and the girl to that truck. He bets the keys are in it, but he needs to get the dead moving away from it first.

Looking beyond the neighbors and into the Admiral’s yard, he can see a barbecue grill that the old man won’t be using anytime soon.
I know that works.

A black cover shrouds the grill, he can see the bottom of its white propane tank peeking out from underneath. The soldier can see where the plastic bulges around the outline of the gas tank. He un-slings his rifle and lies down on his stomach. He must make this shot count. It has to fly true because he doesn’t have a second chance.

The hand guard is nestled into the crook of Dan’s elbow for stability. He takes careful aim. His heart thumps inside his chest so hard it feels like a basketball bouncing against the roof. The soldier knows he must slow his heart rate; its current palpitating is making the sights of his rifle jump with every contraction. He tries to rationalize it.
Even if I miss, one bullet won’t do much to save us anyway.
He takes a deep breath and exhales half of it, just like they taught him.
You save the rest in your lungs until you have fired.
He squeezes the trigger.

The backyard becomes an inferno as the tank blows with a loud boom. The grill completely disappears from sight. The concussive force blows the awning over the tub away, and the windows of the house inwards. A large hole is visible next to the sliding glass door, which remains oddly unscathed.

“
I think I know where the grill went.” Dan says with a smile as he backs away from the edge of the roof. The explosion had propelled the grill through the wall. He watches the zombies below start to make their way to the Admiral’s house. The dead trapped in Barbara’s back yard are heading towards the fence. Dan hurries over to the girl.

He finds her shaking and holding onto the brick even harder than before. The noise must have scared her.
I’m such an asshole,
Dan scolds himself.
I should have warned her first.

“
Barbie doll, are you alright? I’m sorry about the noise. It should buy us some time. We have to go to that house over there.” He says to her in a whisper as he points.

“
The Thompsons?” She asks, mimicking his hushed tone.

“
Yup, the Thompsons.”

“
They kill Bambi.”

“
Sorry?”

“
Every year with my Daddy. They eat it to. I won’t eat it.”

What the hell are you talking about?
Dan wants to ask.
Bambi?
He realizes she means deer.
They’re hunters. That’s a good thing.

“
I wouldn’t either.” Dan tells her as he eases her fingers loose from the brick and mortar. He guides her to the edge of the roof. The dead have all ambled to Ahab’s place to check out the noise.

“
I want you to climb down this drain pipe to the fence below.” He tells her. “See where your yard is divided by that fence? It shouldn’t be too hard, but you need to keep quiet. I’m too heavy for the pipe, so I will be jumping over to that roof. Right on top of the Thompsons’ garage.”

She looks at him as if he has two heads. His plan sounds crazy to the little girl. The plan he is convinced will work based on the color of the paint job.

“
It’ll work.” He tries to assure her. “You know how I know?”

She shakes her head.

“
The house is green.” He actually smiles when he says it. “Not as pretty as my wife’s eyes, but I have decided that green means good.”

She doesn’t look that convinced, he gets her started by lowering her to the pipe. Her bare toes use the brackets that hold the pipe to the wall as rungs as she slowly makes her way down.

Dan watches her for a second before walking to the chimney. He reclaims his flak jacket and fastens it tight. He adjusts how his rifle is slung so it sits across his back diagonally. Although it is out of ammo he doesn’t want to lose it just yet.

With a running start he knows he can make the distance, it’s the landing that concerns him. He can’t leave Barbara hanging in the wind too much longer. He takes a few quick puffs of air in preparation and takes off. The soldier sprints along the slanted surface. The angle makes top speed impossible to achieve as he heads to the edge. He leaves the shingled surface, hurling himself across the divide.

#

Worried eyes watch the daring scene unfold on the other side of the street. An onlooker holds her breath as a man in fatigues flies through the air, and a scared little girl climbs down the side of her home.

She has seen the girl before, but they had never met. She hopes they make it. The spectator’s eyes close and she says a prayer for them.

#

Dan lands on the roof with his chest, his legs slam against the side of the garage. He falls backwards to the grass below. The soldier’s body throbs from the self-induced battering. If he could, he would lie there for a while, but he knows he must help Barbara.

He moves through the pain, scaling the dividing fence. The dead in the backyard have not noticed them yet. They are still trying to figure out how to get to the origin of the sound they had heard. The small girl is almost to the wooden wall that blocks the alley of her home. She has only a couple of feet to go.

Barbara looks back to make sure the stranger is there. The pipe she clings to jolts, breaking away from the wall. She screams as her feet lose contact, dangling in midair. The dead have heard her. They turn to face the survivors. Dan watches them start to head their way.

“
Barbwire, kick out.” He instructs her. She is terrified but able to comply. Her bare feet swing up and meet the red exterior, she shoves out as hard as she can. Dan extends himself over the fence as she falls towards him. The white gutter slows her descent. He catches her under her arms and whisks her over the wall.

He pulls the girl by her hand around the green house. He fears the dead on the street have heard her as well and may come looking for them. He palms windows in passing, looking for an open one. He has no such luck. The sliding door on the back patio is locked as well. Dan hears the moans of the dead.

The two are almost to the corner and they are running out of windows. Dan doesn’t want to take the girl around into the alley just to become trapped, and he has no idea what the next yard will yield. He smashes a panel of glass out of the corner window with his elbow. His hand snakes into the house to turn the latch. The window slides up.

After a quick peek into the darkness of the dwelling Dan is reasonably certain it’s safe. Nothing grabbed him. To be sure he climbs in first, and then pulls the girl in. He carries the barefoot child over the broken glass to the outline of a couch set in the middle of the room.

Dan closes the window and pulls the curtains together. He creeps back to the sofa trying not to crunch the shards of glass under his feet. He can hear the moans getting closer. He sits next to Barbara on the seat where they remain as still as statues and just as quiet. They listen to the corpses approach. Silhouettes walk across the windows. The dead are in the yard, searching.

Dan’s plan is to remain quiet and perhaps they will pass them by. He diverts his attention from the shadow people to check the points of entry to the room they currently cower in. His eyes have adjusted to the dim, he can see to the right is a dining room. Behind them in the corner he can see stairs leading to the second floor.

They sit and wait as the moans get even louder; more zombies join the search party brewing in the back of the house. The girl next to Dan pulls her knees to her chest and starts to rock back and forth. She is scared and is trying to take her mind off the hungry monsters outside by looking at the things on the wall. She knows what the dark blobs in the shadows are, mounted animal heads forever displayed in proud poses. She looks to the floor and the small rug that covers the hard wood in front of them. It’s very soft and warm beneath her feet. She knows it was once alive. She ponders what it could have been, anything to keep her mind off the menacing figures outside.

The dead linger in the yard, swaying on clumsy re-animated legs. They had heard the dinner bell, but can’t find the main course. The two survivors are seated very close to one another as if contact with another living soul could give them the strength needed to endure the anxiety they felt. Footsteps on the stairs behind them cause both to jump.

Slowly they turn toward the source of the sound, feet descending. Dan places a hand on Barbara’s shoulder and guides her down below the backrest of the couch. He joins her and they peek over the cushions. The soldier covertly takes his empty rifle into his hands before the figure emerges on the landing.

It shuffles down the stairs in slow deliberate steps. Judging by its size and shape, Dan thinks it to be male. The dark form leaves the staircase and walks easily through the room.
He’s not dead,
Dan realizes. The alleged man knows the lay out and walks like the living. He is also carrying a rather long rifle.

Mr. Thompson, I presume,
Dan thinks to himself. He has to stop Barbara from bounding off of the couch to greet the guy.
Even if he is alive, he has a gun and shouldn’t be startled. He could fire the weapon and bring all sorts of hell crashing through the windows.

The intruders can only watch as the man stalks along the walls. He hasn’t seen his new houseguests just yet, but he is visibly aware of the trespassers outside. He cranes his body forward slightly, taking in the silhouettes. The man peeks around the corner into the dining room before he disappears into it.

Dan is racking his brain as to how to get the man’s attention without alarming him, or making a lot of noise. He can’t clear his throat because it may sound too much like the dead. He pulls out his lighter and holds it behind the couch before striking it. He keeps the flame down as a precaution. He doesn’t want the cadavers seeing its glow.

The man appears again after his tour of the other reaches of the house. He stops in his tracks and raises his rifle when he sees the small flame. Dan watches the man lower his head in an attempt to see. The soldier raises the lighter enough for it to illuminate their faces. The weapon is aimed at the ceiling and the man gestures for the faces to follow him up the stairs.

14

Becka had locked the bathroom door behind her. She avoided seeing herself in the mirror, catching only the briefest of glances. Streaks of Stevie’s coagulated blood clung thickly to her face. She undressed and turned on the shower. Over and over she washed her hair and body in the hottest water possible. Her skin was raw from her vigorous scrubbing with the loofha. She just couldn’t get clean enough. She repeated the routine again and again; head to toe as she cried.

The shampoo bottle had run dry after a while, giving her one final burst of soap. That small glob had been rinsed out five minutes ago. She now lays curled on the bottom of the tub, letting the water pelt her vulnerable naked body. She has been like this long since the water started to run cold.

Her world has opened up from a cramped crawlspace to three rooms. One contains the body of her friend, the boy she had killed twice, another is a dank and creepy cave, and the one she resides in now is splattered with her own filth.

Becka’s hands shake, chilled to the bone, as she shuts off the water. She shivers, allowing herself to air dry. She tries to enjoy being clean and enjoy the security of the locked door. She looks at her dirty clothes,
I can’t put them on again.
They are stiff from dried sweat and Stevie’s blood.

His blood,
she thinks.
That is why he had to die. Those creatures could smell it. They followed him from one hole to the other.
She wasn’t sure if he was bitten or not, like Derek had said, but it was clear to her that those things wouldn’t leave until they had him. So she gave him to them.

She forces the subject from her head. She will not let herself onto that train of thought again. She grabs her garments, wishing she had done this before she had gotten clean. The rags sparkle from the insulation dust as she digs through her pants pockets. She retrieves Billy’s razor and leaves her change. She takes a pair of twenty sided dice from the other pocket. Derek had given her these when they first started playing all those years ago. One is red, the other black. She can feel her eyes watering as she looks at her dice. She thinks about her friends and how they will never play again. Never talk, or watch movies.

Stop it!
She commands herself.
You need clothes.
She debates going into Derek’s mom’s room to find some, but that’s where Stevie now rests. She decides Billy’s clothes will fit better anyway since Derek’s mom is a larger woman. Becka puts an ear to the bathroom door and listens, making sure it is safe before slipping into the hall and into Billy’s lair, naked. A funny thought hits her, and actually makes her chuckle.